MÜHLHAUSEN COACH ERIK SCHREYER: "HANGING HEADS DON'T SUIT US"
A dream start looks different: Champions League participants Post SV Mühlhausen find themselves in the table basement after the start of the season in the German Table Tennis League (TTBL) following defeats at Borussia Düsseldorf (0:3) and Werder Bremen (1:3). In an interview, coach Erik Schreyer talks about the reasons for his team's bumpy start to the season and why he is hoping for an emphatic improvement in performance like last season.
Erik Schreyer, after two rounds you and Post SV Mühlhausen are bottom of the table in the German table tennis league. Do you perceive this situation in the TTBL as a deja vu experience after the initial problems in the previous season?
We're actually kind of used to this situation, but of course you wouldn't want it to be like this. However, we already know from last season how quickly the tide can turn again and how things can improve even after a bumpy start. Just like back then, one of our greatest strengths now is that we have a good atmosphere in our team even after defeats. Hanging heads doesn't suit us and our mentality.
From your point of view, what went differently than you had hoped in the first two games at defending champions Borussia Düsseldorf and Werder Bremen?
Well, it's certainly always difficult to survive in Düsseldorf, but we weren't that bad in Bremen either. I also saw a lot of positive things there.
But didn't Daniel Habesohn or Ovidiu Ionescu also have to contend with dips in form after the European Championship in Munich?
The first few games weren't so easy for either of them. You always have to acknowledge the strength of the opponent, but the international calendar is a big burden. The players have only had a week's vacation in total, so it's human nature to have a lull and not always be able to deliver maximum performance week after week. It was precisely because of the strain that we brought in Kim Taehyun from South Korea following Irvin Bertrand's operation, because it would have been too risky with just three players.
How do you expect the season to go?
Some teams will be hard to beat, but there will also be some surprises in this league, if you only consider that the cup winners and runners-up 1. FC Saarbrücken TT will lose to TTC Zugbrücke Grenzau. There will be a few more of these, so that the fourth-placed team in the table will certainly only enter the play-offs with a few minus points. We ourselves will get stronger the longer the season goes on. On the one hand, Irvin can be back in November or December, and on the other, we're a really close-knit team thanks to our experiences last year.
Is the still winless promoted team 1. FSV Mainz 05 in Monday's match in a real basement duel just right for you to take the first step towards such a development?
At this point in the season, I wouldn't call it a basement clash, but we have a duty to deliver anyway, because it's our first home game of the new season. We're hoping for the same support from our fans as last year, but even in such a cauldron, success won't be a foregone conclusion, because Mainz are rumored to be playing with their best line-up, including their Japanese player Yuto Muramatsu - and even as newcomers, they're an absolutely competitive first division team.